Redistricting

Proposals to pair state House districts to create state Senate districts are now available on the website of the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission. Individual commissioners submitted the proposals last week. The full commission will consider and vote upon the proposals at the commission's Friday, November 30th meeting.

Although the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission made giant strides toward completing a legislative redistricting plan when it tentatively adopted 100 state House districts in August, it still has work to do. So the commission will meet again at least once in each remaining month of 2012.

At the end of a week-long meeting last month, the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission voted to adopt a tentative redistricting plan containing 100 state House districts. The commissioners stressed that the plan was tentative and reserved the right to suggest and make changes at future commission meetings.

The website of the Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission has been updated with maps of the 100 state House districts the commissioners tentatively adopted at an August 13-17 meeting. The website is available at www.leg.mt.gov/districting.

The Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission will meet Aug. 13-17 in Helena after taking the summer to consider the comments it received earlier this year on five draft legislative redistricting plans. The August meetings start at 10 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 13, in the Capitol. Meetings on subsequent days will begin at 9 a.m.

In May, the Districting and Apportionment Commission finished the public-hearing phase on the five draft redistricting plans with meetings in Havre, Wolf Point, Crow Agency, Billings, and Miles City. Members of the public turned out in force at these meeting to testify on the plans. The commission held 14 public hearings around Montana in March, April, and May.

The Districting and Apportionment Commission continues to travel the state to take public comment about the five proposed redistricting plans. In late March and early April, the commissioners heard from people in Butte, Helena, Lewistown, and Bozeman. Attendance at each hearing was exceptional, with most meetings being standing room only.

A new report series is available to help the public determine how their county might be affected by several proposed redistricting plans for redrawn state House districts. The reports combine maps and basic population data to highlight the options being considered by the Districting Commission. Each report includes the county's population as of the 2010 Census, maps of the county under each proposed redistricting plan, and various statistics about the makeup and population of each proposed district in the county.